The battlefield was silent.

  The air still crackled from Kuroda’s transformation. The squad barely stood their ground, their bodies still reeling from the sheer weight of his presence.

  Then—

  Kuroda’s smirk widened.

  “Oh? What’s this?”

  He lifted his head slightly, gaze shifting toward the distance.

  “Looks like you’ve got reinforcements.”

  He let the words settle, amusement flickering in his eyes.

  “How sweet.”

  The squad felt it. That surge of energy swirling like a storm.

  Yumi’s head snapped up.

  Her breath hitched.

  “He’s here.”

  Her fingers tightened around Kiyohime.

  “He’s safe. He’s—”

  BOOM.

  The chopper vanished.

  CUT BACK.

  Just seconds before impact.

  Watari stood inside the chopper, watching the battlefield come into view. Samberg sat in the pilot’s seat, focused, silent.

  The battlefield was chaos. The city skyline scarred, energy still warping from Kuroda’s ascension.

  Samberg let out a dry chuckle.

  “Hell of a time to make an entrance.”

  Then—

  A fsh of light.

  Kuroda tilted his head slightly.

  And then—

  He fired.

  A pure, concentrated bst ripped through the sky.

  The entire chopper was annihited.

  The world exploded into fire.

  But in the st fraction of a second—

  Samberg moved.

  His hand grabbed Watari’s colr.

  A final shove.

  “GO!”

  Watari was thrown from the chopper.

  He barely registered the weightless feeling. The rushing wind.

  The st thing he saw—

  Samberg.

  Still in the cockpit.

  The fmes swallowing him whole.

  Then—

  The chopper was gone.